The environmental aspects of raasing animals, and specifically poultry, are known to have a direct relationship to the time at which the animals mature. In poultry, this corresponds to the time at which the chickens are available for market and when egg production commences, as well as the quality and quantity of such egg production. In regard to poultry raising, it has been proposed to utilize red filters over the illumination sources or red windows in the hen house in an effort to decrease cannibalism among the poultry. Poultry have a strange attraction to the sight of blood, particularly blood appearing on other members of the flock. When a chicken has blood on it, the other chickens peck at that chicken and ultimately this pecking spreads in rather epidemic proportions throughout the flock. Use of red light, either through filtering natural sunlight of filtering incandescent illumination, will make the red blood appear somewhat black and, thus, will inhibit pecking among members of the flock and will prevent cannibalism. Additionally, the use of infrared radiation as a source of heat, particularly in an incubator or brooder, for incubating the eggs and for brooding the chicks is also a known practice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,809 to Clark discloses that when a dye containing hematoporphyrin or hematoporphyrin derivatives, which have been administered intraveneously is irradiated with a high intensity red light having an absorption peak at a wavelength of about 631 nanometers, a cytotoxic effect is achieved against malignant tissue. The light source for the Clark disclosure is a high energy xenon ion laser arranged for simultaneous lasing as wavelengths from about 406 to 427 nanometers and at a wavelength of about 626 nanometers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,513 to Stuhl discloses apparatus for irradiating the skin for therapeutic and healing purposes and especially for treatment of psoriasis. The Stuhl disclosure, however, is directed to topical treatment of a local dermal condition, and is not related to animal conditioning treatment.
Thus, it is known that there are some beneficial effects that may be obtained from using radiation, including infrared radiation, generally termed red light, on poultry and in human treatment.
Nevertheless, faced with the information regarding poultry, the vast majority of poultry raisers use clear incandescant or white fluorescent artificial illumination sources. One drawback in placing red filters over the artificial illumination sources is that this represents an enery loss, since there are light transmission losses in the filter. Also, the kind of filters used are generally of poor filtering quality and are not totally effective in passing only red light. Similarly, infrared incandescent lighting generally produces too much heat. A large amount of heat in poultry is known to produce stressful conditions in the organisms, and this is then counterproductive when attempting to increase the production of the flock.
The use of special lamps in raising plants has also become quite popular these days. These "grow lamps" are usually intended as a source of artificial sunlight with the added convenience that exact photoperiods can be obtained by control of such lamps. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,993 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,695.